A Little Liquid Courage
by Emerald Embers
Summary: The morning after the night before. Rude/Reno, Cloud/Tifa


Reno eyed the bucket at the side of his bed suspiciously before realising the bucket was the least of his problems. His stomach was empty enough that it had started to digest itself, his head felt three times heavier than usual, and most concerning of all, his bed was not his bed. It was the bed of another he. Or another she.

Ah, yes. And the body pressed up against his, if thankfully not wrapped around him, smelt familiar. _Shit_.

Grimacing with discomfort, Reno forced himself to turn over and assess the situation.

Both of them had pants on. Good, good sign. Flies undone, but no stains anywhere, and the only thing his hands felt was sweaty.

And Rude was sleeping in a pair of now-broken sunglasses, so chances were they'd been as drunk as each other.

_Score_.

He'd been after Rude for years, give or take odd periods when they'd run off with flings for a bit, and ever since a nasty moment several months ago when they'd nearly died together he'd been in the awkward position of knowing he happened to be a little bit in love with the big bald bastard. Once that notion clicked into place he was faced with the horrid reality of knowing he was a) quite likely to make a drunken love confession and b) even likelier to try and get Rude to fuck him while drunk. It had taken all the fun out of alcohol and he'd actually been cutting down on it, but helping to prevent the end of the world _again_ seemed as good a reason to get hammered as any.

Rude made a very strange half cough, half gurgle sound as he stirred, pulling the glasses off and throwing them with unerring accuracy at a bin on the other side of the room. God, and Reno had wondered why he loved this man. "Morning," Reno offered as perkily as possible, before suffering the indignity of having Rude lean across him to vomit into the bedside bucket, again with unerring accuracy. Oh man, that sounded painful.

"Morning," Rude replied after swilling his mouth out with water, mouthwash, more water, and spitting after each into the bucket. Reno had to admit, the mint covered up the rest of the fun vomity smells pretty effectively. He'd have to keep a bottle by his own bed in future.

"I think we might have given Tifa enough business for a decade," Reno suggested, trying to ignore how the stupider parts of his body were reacting to having strong, broad, topless chest crushed against his own.

"So, last night. Undying love."

"Shit." Reno sighed, his stomach bottoming out.

"You meant it?"

"Kinda." Reno tried to find something other than Rude to look at but most of the posters were blocked off by his body anyway. "Look, if - "

"Shut up," Rude urged before planting a kiss on Reno's cheek and rolling back to his side of the bed. "Took you long enough to say something and I'm supposed to be the quiet one."

"You know me, I only shut up if it's something that matters." Couldn't help it anymore and he laughed, relieved, before enjoying a moment of shameless femininity and cuddling up against Rude. "Did you take advantage of your innocent wasted partner last night?"

"Thought about it." Rude smirked, just a little bit, before pulling Reno's battered bobble off and tossing it away, brushing his fingers through the freed hair carefully. "No wire?"

"Concealed flick knife," Reno replied with a grin, figuring they could get around to removing _that_ obstacle once their stomachs were both settled enough to let them actually enjoy themselves. "Who got the last round?"

"I did."

"Right. Breakfast's on me, then." Reno moved to get up but found himself held quite firmly in place. "Not hungry?"

"It's five in the morning."

"And you couldn't possibly let me out of your sight for two minutes, could you?"

"Up yours," Rude replied affectionately, nuzzling Reno's hair with his chin. "Don't think you're getting to play housewife."

"Thank fuck." Reno rubbed a hand down Rude's back, remembering various missions by the scars they'd left. "You know, if you'd said something first, we could've been doing this much earlier."

"You think the others haven't figured? Gave them time to get used to the idea." Rude smirked again, using the arm he'd hooked around Reno's waist to pull him up onto his thighs.

"Rude, I'm gonna hurl if you try anything fancy," Reno warned, enjoying the feeling of being in control while sat on Rude's legs, enjoying more the feeling of Rude's hands pulling his trousers down. "Nice to be getting undressed without a health check, even if you were fond of checking out my femoral."

Rude dug his thumbs into the bared skin of Reno's thighs while the erection-exposing favour was returned, replied, "Can't be too careful."

"Got any whipped cream?"

"_Knew_ you'd be kinky."

"Been waiting on this for years, I'm allowed," Reno settled in place, gripping Rude's half-hard cock and stroking lazily. "When're you gonna tell Tifa the bad news?"

"Cloud came back with a 'closed for business' sign the other days. Don't think we need to worry about that."

"I was kidding." Reno felt a teeny, tiny, insignificant bit jealous.

"I wasn't. When are you getting implants?"

"Fuck you," Reno laughed, giving Rude a cruel punch in the stomach out of spite and shimmying backwards a little when it looked like the plan might have backfired. "So. When's the wedding?" Reno blanched when Rude held up a left hand distinctly in possession of a ring. "Oh, you're fucking kidding me."

"Yeah." Rude laughed out loud, pulling the 'ring' off and demonstrating how easily a band of foil could be crushed between one's fingers.

"_Fucker!_"

Rude said nothing more, returning the favour Reno had extended him by matching stroke for stroke, quietly enjoying the attention.

Reno had to admit, one of Rude's more bankable skills had always been the ability to get even him to shut up.

.

Cloud found himself enjoying the post-coital afterglow of sex for the second time that morning and the strange, hazy-but-clear set of thought processes brought on by the experience. "Tifa?"

"Hmm..."

"You think... I mean, they were very drunk, but... you think Rude and Reno..."

"I hope so."

"Should I make breakfast?"

"God no." Tifa sniffed for a second before settling herself more comfortably, and Cloud had to wonder if the erection-inducing properties of naked breasts against one's skin would ever be something he got used to. He hoped not. Alcohol, and a gift from the others, had found him something he'd been waiting on for years.

"Tifa?"

"What?" She grumbled, pleasantly irritable.

"Which one do you like? Rude or Reno?"

"Same as you," Tifa replied, pulling the sheets up a little further. "It's five thirty. Go to sleep."

"Tifa?"

"_Go to sleep_."

Cloud heard the threat in her voice and swallowed his words. The "I love you"s could always come later.

.

The End


End file.
